Book Spine Poetry, or Moving with Lots of Books is a Pain

I just moved to a new apartment, and probably like many of you, I don’t own a lot of things, but the thing I own a lot of is books. Boxes, crates, shelves—you name it and it has books in or on it. So to keep from going nutty while I unpacked and (re)organized, I decided to make some book spine poems. Of course there’s always some measure of narcissism in a little project like this (“ooh, look at all the cool books I have!“), but I also think seeing someone else’s personal library is a window into their head (however small the window or head). So in that spirit, I’m posting my poems below, and you all should make some and send them our way! Take pics and tweet them to us @pwreviews and we’ll retweet them to all our followers.

Last year I facilitated our FIRST ANNUAL BOOK SPINE POETRY CONTEST. We received 40+ entries. People had so much fun creating these brief (8 book spines=8 lines)poems, statements, insights. Immediately you witness the beckoning whisper of a title to a patron who then moves through the stacks scanning until the next and the next and the next book spine title reaches out and finds itself in a warm embrace. Yes, it is quite something to behold when the creations are complete and the patron sits back in wonder at what they have pulled together. The books? Laugh silently to themselves.

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